Xia Pumo eventually felt the warmth from the living creature after he had suffered that much these days. Ronghua came close, hugged him in her arms, and let his head lean on her shoulder, which could make him more comfortable. One of her hands patted his back to pacify him, and the other was transferring spiritual power into his body continuously.
Xia Pumo looked at her with his poor eyesight, tears appearing in his eyes. He was moved for her coming. He thought he was bound to die here, but she showed up at the critical moment.
“Ronghua, I thought you would never come back. You left me alone there without a note, and I was unable to protect myself at that time.” He murmured in his mind.
Ronghua looked down at him and whispered in his ear, “Sorry, I’m late. I shouldn’t have left you there. I apologize for my mistake.”
“…Ronghua, you…” Xia Pumo had been a little bit resentful, but now he knew he trusted the right person. She would keep her words since she could help him save Zhe. He thought it was just his illusion, and it turned out that she indeed came back. She came back to rescue him.
Finding he was all wet with blood, Ronghua felt sorry for him. She asked in a low voice, “Does it hurt much?”
His lips trembled, like enduring something, “It’s all right. It’s enough that you return.”
Ronghua’s anger increased due to his bad state. Then she found Xia Pumo’s hands were shivering unconsciously. Did he feel cold? A dazzling white fur coat was then formed in her hand, and she shielded Xia Pumo with it. His tremble stopped when he felt warm enough.
The crowd witnessed all these and felt embarrassed. They sneered that Xia Pumo was a demon stuck in an impasse not long ago, but then he was rescued. What’s worse, Xu Xin was defeated in an instant and failed to stand on his feet until now!
“… Ronghua.”
Ronghua lowered her head, “Does somewhere hurt?”
Xia Pumo stiffly shook his head, “No, I’m fine. You…”
Ronghua leaned closer but still could not hear his words clearly, so she strengthened the transaction of spiritual power to him. Xia Pumo felt relaxed in being nourished by her power, and his eyes tended to close. But it was not the time to rest, because he had an important thing to tell her. He took a deep breath to keep himself sober.
Considering Xia Pumo’s pale face, Ronghua knew he was drained and was forcing himself to be awake.
“Have a rest first!” She advised. However, the word rest made his mind clear immediately, and he kept reminding himself that he should not sleep. He used his wounded hand to grasp Ronghua. The wound was not healed at all, so when he grabbed her tight, his hand bled at once. Even Ronghua seemed to feel the pain.
However, Xia Pumo had no time to care about this and used more strength.
“My z…zither.”
Ronghua was a little impatient. It was about that zither again. He was in such a bad condition but still only thought about that zither. Whatever she thought, Ronghua still asked him softly, “Where is it?”
He could not be irritated now, so comforting him was her priority. She detected how weak he was right now, even too weak to survive.
He replied immediately and pointed at a man, “Xu Xin…fire…in his hand…z…zither, my zither.”
Ronghua pulled his hand back and warmed his hands with the fire of nothingness. She soothed him, “Don’t worry. I will take it back.”
Xu Xin’s men had not figured out what had happened until Xu Xin was hit by the fireball, so now they realized that someone was here to rescue Xia Pumo.
Xu Xin swore when he managed to stand up, “Fuck! Who is it? Come out! How dared you try to kill me?”
Ronghua raised one brow and looked at him. It was that damned man again. Who gave him the courage to speak rudely to her?
“It’s me. Do you have any problem?” Ronghua retorted sharply.
Without expecting that she dared reply, Xu Xin was chocked in astonishment. He used to be bossy and arrogant to others and was seldom treated in this way, so he did not know how to react to Ronghua’s different attitudes, “Who…Who are you?”
“I’m Xia Pumo’s sister,” Ronghua answered leisurely.
Xu Xun was baffled by her words. Was not Xia Pumo a bastard? How could he have an elder sister? Why had not anyone heard about her?
In contrast, Xia Pumo was remarkably unperturbed because he was used to the surprises made by Ronghua.
However, Xu Xin adjusted his moods soon, “His sister? Kill her!” He did not waste any time and gave the instruction. Ronghua smiled and appreciated his courage.
Ronghua reassured Xia Pumo, “Sleep now. You can see it when you wake up.” He trusted Ronghua, so he finally allowed himself to fall asleep after he got her promise and lay in her arms relievedly.
Ronghua took out a bed made of ice and put it beside her. She lay Xia Pumo on the bed and felt he became so light. Her hands made a gesture, and a spell boundary appeared around the bed. “It should be safe enough!” She was satisfied with her work.
After she had made a shelter for Xia Pumo, tenderness on her face vanished, and grimness appeared.
Ronghua took out her fan and examined three subordinates of Xu Xin casually. Then she said defiantly, “I’m busy, so you three would better come together to save my energy and time. Besides, surrender his zither.”
Xu Xin grinned grimly, “We’ll talk about this after you survive.”
“Well, you’d better pay attention now. I’m sure you will regret provoking me in this way.”
Xu Xin was really annoyed with her provocation and commanded directly, “Go! Kill her! I only want to see her corpse!”
Those three looked at each other and nodded with tacit understanding. Provided by Xu Xin, this was the chance for their survival, so they would not let it go. After all, none of them wanted to lose their life.
The tall one came forward first, “My name is Gao Zhi.”
Then was a female stepped forward shyly and timidly, “Gao Yue.”
The last one was a feminine man, “Gao Kun.”
After they introduced themselves, the whole crowd edged back with fear. They were the Gaos, who were well-known recently because they could do whatever evil things like murder. Why were they recruited by the Xu Family? Did the Xu Family begin to associate with such sinful people?
The Gaos separated to rush to Ronghua from three directions, all with long swords in hands.
Ronghua chuckled, “All swords! I should not use the fan then!” She transformed her fan into a long sword, too. It was light and thin, smooth enough to reflect her face.
The fight began, and Ronghua responded quickly to their movements. After she fended against several attacks, the blade of her sword sharpened and began to cut and stab increasingly fast. In the end, people under the platform could only see a shadow, swift as lightning.
The long swords made piercing whistling sounds, and suddenly, Gao Zhi found a loophole of Ronghua’s movements. He immediately held his sword upright, leveraged the force of his sister, and chopped towards Ronghua. Ronghua noticed that her deceptive movement hooked him, so she spun sharply, receded to one side, and stabbed to Gao Yue’s waist at passing. Gao Yue felt the pain and evaded out of the fighting, covering her wound with hands.
Gao Zhi did not expect that this woman showed her loophole intentionally. He failed to hit her, and his sister got harmed conversely.
Gao Yue muffled her wound while the blood still leaked out from her hands and dropped down.
Gao Kun became serious. They had not attached much importance to this woman and had never thought that a slight bruise from her sword could cause incessant bleeding.
Gao Yue’s eyes darkened for the sense of failure. She leaned on her sword and looked up to the three who were still fighting. Suddenly, she shouted to warn, “Gao Zhi! Be Careful!”
“Could you avoid this?” Ronghua asked.
Gao Zhi was stunned for a while, and Ronghua made use of this moment. Her wrist shook once, and her sword moved like a flash of cold light. It struck at the hand of Gao Zhi, which was holding his sword. Then his hand was numb and couldn’t hold the weapon. Ronghua struck again at his sword tossed it to the air, like a dragon flying to the sky. She jumped high and caught it. She used it to chop towards Gao Zhi, forcing him looped backward many times to avoid. Finally, he lost his balance and fell backward. The last attack swung passed his nose closely. It almost hit him!
Ronghua smiled and loosed her fingers. The sword was thrown and crashed straight to the fatal attack from Gao Kun. The weapons clicked, and sparkles flashed at the place they met.
Gao Kun looked at Ronghua through the swords and found her eyes were blood red!
He twisted to climb to his feet and bounced away from her. He picked up his sword and receded to his siblings, whispering to them, “She is an intractable one. It’s useless if we fight wildly.”
Gao Yue knelt on the ground and asked anxiously, “What should we do? Surrender?”
“Do you think Xu Xin would keep us alive if we lose?” Gao Kun got right to the point. Even though they surrendered and Ronghua did not kill them, Xu Xin would do it.
“Now that we might die, whether we lose or not, we’d better gamble.” Gao Zhi said.
“Gamble on what?” Gao Yue asked.
“Gamble on the possibility to kill her!” Gao Kun answered.
Gao Zhi spoke to Gao Kun, “You make the decision for us.”
Gao Kun was usually the one who made the plan among them. After a while, he said, “We attack her together, not to kill, but to consume her power. We think of the next step later!”
“OK.”
Ronghua watched them discussing secretly and wondered what they were planning.
The Gaos rushed fiercely to Ronghua together. Ronghua raised her sword and transformed it into a whip. The whip was flexible like a snake after she injected her spiritual power in it. They did not have any time to elude it and were walloped to the ground.
Gao Yue had run out of her spiritual power to defend, and blood spurted from her mouth. None of them expected her sword could turn into a long whip, and they were obviously disadvantaged. The situation was quite annoying to them. How could her weapon be so extraordinary?
Gao Zhi was better than his sister. He felt he was all right, so he intended to fight with Ronghua again. However, when he moved, he suddenly felt his chest was contracted, and his head was dazzling. The unfavorable conditions made him stagger and nearly fall. He realized that their situation was infaust. If they did not try their best to kill her, they would soon be killed.
He decided to corporate with Gao Kun. Both of them were very solemn, and their style of martial arts suddenly changed from fusty and normal to brisk and unstrained. Ronghua saw the shake of their wrists. It was the martial arts named Cool Breeze Through Peach Blossoms. Their corporation was perfect and seemed to have no flaw!
Ronghua realized that they had changed their strategy. After switching from three people to two, their speed became faster immediately, and she found it gradually became difficult for her to catch up. She had transferred too much spiritual power to Xia Pumo and made a spell boundary. Therefore, her power nearly run out as time passed. As their speed was still accelerating, the swords in their hands were as quick as a floating dragon, shining silver lights. She raised her weapon to defend, but they changed the direction instantly. It seemed that the shadows of their swords were multiplying, and she was besieged. She had to open her golden pupils to find the real ones. Her fingers were stricken to numb by the numerous swords, so she changed the whip back to the fan and flapped it at the brothers at full tilt. They were still hanging in the air and waiting to find the balance, so they were flapped to the ground as a result.
“You….” Gao Kun was nearly driven mad by Ronghua. How many weapons did she have?
Ronghua retracted her fan and set these three humans aside. Then she moved to stand beside Xu Xin within a second. Xu Xin had not recovered from the astonishment of their failure yet. A sword was held clinging to his neck.
He surrendered with both hands raised immediately, “Heroine, I beg for your mercy!”
Ronghua asked blankly, “Where is Xia Pumo’s zither?”
Xu Xin glanced at the sword near his neck, swallowed for fear, and yelled at his subordinates, “Quick… quickly! Bring me that dem… no, Xia Pumo’s zither!”